Tag Archives: Rolling Ball Sculpture

Over, and over, and over, and over, and…

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I keep practicing. After screwing up a number of welds on the sculpture itself, I figured I’d do a test piece like this and make a zillion practice welds (okay, ten or twelve) on it and see if that helped. The reason I didn’t try to take a better picture of the welds here is because they’re pretty crappy. You get the idea, though, that I’m doing this repeatedly. It’s not pretty, but it’s necessary. This is progress. In years past I would have thrown this all out and been really disgusted, and maybe even given up on welding all together. This is the sort of thing that would have stopped me dead in my tracks, or would have kept me from just simply keeping at it for another hour or two that evening or the next day. It’s the sort of thing where I might have thrown it angrily in the trash (or on the floor), and just walked away for a week, a month, a year.

Well, I’m not overjoyed or anything, but at least I’m not setting unrealistic expectations for myself (maybe?). This is the way things are for me right now, and they will improve if I keep after it, and I’m going to keep after it!!!!

It seems so easy

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You think when you weld something that you just…weld it! Not so. What do we have here? Well, there’s a big sheet of steel on the workbench, and there are some two by fours on that, and there’s a special aluminum clamp on there, and then the standard quick-clamp holding the small “U” piece, and then at the far end is the clamp for the ground for the welder itself. Then, consider that all this stuff had to be lined up and steadied so that it wouldn’t fall or move while it was being welded. Then, of course, there’s always the chance that the weld itself is going to be lousy (in my case), and none of the aforementioned work will matter anyway.

Just…weld it. Sure!

The same, but different

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Here is a view of the sculpture that I started in my steel fabrication workshop a few weeks ago. Yep, pretty much the same sort of stuff I’ve been doing on copper, but I’ve gone a couple sizes up in marble diameter, and it’s made out of steel. This thing is physically far larger than anything I’ve tried to do with copper, which is kind of fun and kind of ridiculous. I like it!

Letting go, moving on

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So I went to my steel fabrication sculpture class this past weekend, and it was A-FRIGGIN’-MAZING!!!! OMGZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! (There will be more pictures and explanation later, promise!)

We built stuff! We cut stuff using FIRE!!! There was an oxyacetelyne setup and a plasma cutter and a MIG welder! It was awesome! I will post pics soon as I’m able. I built about half of a rolling ball sculpture in three hours. Yes, shock and surprise there, right? A bunch of people looked at it and were like, “What…is that?” One guy in particular kept looking at it. I’m wondering if he’s not going to start thinking about building one. He had this funny look on his face, like he was really considering something.

This whole welding thing – it was just so great! My one or two meager efforts at stick welding in the garage gave me some familiarity, and the practice of soldering actually prepared me for some of processes used in welding, so I was kind of online already. But the whole thing, just – it was incredible! I have been told, and I believe it’s also in the Artist’s Way, that when you’re really tuned in, when you’re really doing what you’re supposed to be doing, you forget all about everything else around you. Time flies by and you don’t even know it. You become terrifically focused on what you’re doing.

That’s exactly what happened. I was wholly drawn in to it. On Saturday we basically learned how the shop works. On Sunday it was, “Have at it!” day, so Saturday night I went home and took the steel rods I’d bought earlier that morning and I bent them up into spirals so I could spend my time welding on Sunday and not bending stuff. I was working on it without even being there! Then when I got there I got so into my work I didn’t even realize I hadn’t taken a picture until the instructor told is it was time to start cleaning up. I was all the way into it. It was the greatest thing ever!

But what does this have to do with letting go, you ask? Moving on? Well, the experience with welding was so awesome, even the parts where I screwed up, that I’m now clearing out anything around my house that I can find that I don’t need so I can buy a welder! From the outset of this whole rolling ball sculpture exploration I’ve wanted to weld, work with steel. Actually, I still have pieces of scrap metal, old car parts, that I cut up expressly to build a sculpture with. However, I realized not long into the project that I was taking a huge bite, and not sure I could chew it. I scaled back to copper just to get my feet wet. My feet are fairly soaked now, and this welding workshop solidified my suspicions from years past: I WANT TO WELD STEEL! I NEED TO DO THIS!

I know what material I want to use: stainless steel. I know what I want to do with it: build rolling ball sculptures. I need precision and detail. For this I need a TIG welder. Well, I could get by with less, but I’m not going to hamstring my efforts by getting what *kind of* works, not when I could pool resources and get what I *know* is going to do exactly what I need it to do.

At first I was just kind of desperate, like, “Ahh! I must get one! I don’t know how!” Then I went, “Dude, you know how much they cost, and you don’t have that kind of money….damn.” Then I went, “Hey, there have got to be one or two things lying around the house that you don’t want or need anymore. Maybe you can put enough of them together to make ends meet.”

So I started looking, and I was surprised at what I found. I dug through my back hall and found a bunch of music gear that I either never use, or use so seldom that it’s probably best that I just let go of it. It’s all going on Ebay here shortly. I already put a little bass amp on there, a practice amp, and there are a couple more old tube guitar amps that are probably going to go up as well. I may have already sold one of them to a friend, sans Ebay. Cheaper for both of us!

I’m on my way. I’m letting go of all kinds of stuff that I’ve been holding onto. It’s time to turn that over into something that I can use and enjoy today. They say that the things we own can end up owning us, that we can become trapped by things, stuff. I know that in the past I haven’t sold these things because, “Well, I might want to use it someday,” or, “But what if I regret selling it a year or two or ten from now?” Well, what if a year or two or ten from now I go, “Man, I really wish I’d bought that welder ten years ago. Just think where I’d be now if I’d started back then! Why did I wait?”

If I’m not using these things, someone else should be. They were created to be used, not to sit in a dark corner. I’m putting them back out into the world where they can be enjoyed…and then I’m going to purchase something that *I* can fully enjoy today, right now!

Slingshot – Rolling Ball Sculpture Completed!

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Woohoo! Another one off the bench!

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What do ya think? Fun, huh? Everyone kept saying, “Hey, don’t you think you could maybe, like, make it go up and over? Like a loop? Can’t you do that?” And I was all like, “Yes.” And I did. It whips through the loops and then drops down into the little pocket at the end and spins for a second with the leftover energy.

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This one’s pretty fun. It has kind of a leaned back look to it, and the way the long drop launches the marble into the loops it reminded me of a slingshot. From a side angle the bottom loop-the-loop looks like wheels and the stretch up to the spiral at the top looks like what they used to call a “slingshot” dragster, but that’s just me. You’re opines may vary, and that’s totally cool with me. It’s still fun to play with.

Rolling with steel

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What?!?!?! Tom built an RBS? SHOCKER!

Yet another glimpse at my experience with steel fabrication sculpture at the Indianapolis Art Center. This is a kind of terrible photo, but I imagine you can get an idea of what’s going on here. I was in the process of building this RBS when we had to knock off for the end of the workshop. I busted butt and really did a fair job of getting through things. The parts that I completed actually function all the way to where the track ends, which I consider to be some kind of minor miracle.

I used a MIG welder on this mild steel piece. I was told to come back and now that I’m a member I can get studio time and complete it! Oh, and the red things on there are actually big magnets that are being used to hold things in position while I work. They don’t stay on there. Yet more detail on this to come. Stay tuned – it was SO COOL!

Aaaaaaand DONE! “Make Stuff #2” Rolling Ball Sculpture

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Finished at last! I forget when I started on this thing, but it seems like weeks ago. I think it was nine days hence, but I was figuring it would be wrapped up in no more than a week, or perhaps even less.

Yeaaaaaah, right. I don’t think it’s likely that I can do something simply and quickly, although that last one wrapped up pretty quickly once I was able to put some time in on it. Okay, it’s possible. Not likely, but possible.

So this one was supposed to be pretty simple and quick, and I suppose, compared to the 30-day builds that I’ve done in the past, this one WAS pretty quick, but not as fast as I’d planned, and, well, really…not as simple. Concept, yes. Execution, no!

Basically there’s a spiral that dumps onto this backwards-facing incline, and then the marble gets carried to the top by inertia where it stops, rolls back again, passes the point where it fell from the spiral, and then continues on through the rest of the sculpture. At its most basic it’s just a spiral and about a foot or so of track. In the real world, not so simple.

But enough of that! Check out the results!

makestuff2lftop

Above you can see the unique aspect to this particular sculpture, the brass ramp. Said ramp is made out of the reed plate of a Hohner harmonica. I removed all the reeds and bent it into a shallow U-shaped channel. The track that it mounts to extends for quite some distance before it is anchored to the base. For this reason, when the marble lands on it, it vibrates a lot and looks like it’s about to fall off at any number of points. It also sounds kind of cool, because it’s brass, gives it a nice little clanky, rattley sound. I would like to get some video of this one in particular. I don’t have a camera, though, nor does anyone I know offhand. I’m wondering if maybe my goal should be to sell several of these so that I can afford a camera. After all, the whole point of these sculptures is that they actually move. It’d be nice to show that aspect to people, particularly when it’s a weird one like this one.

Here you can see the extension of the ramp a little better:

makestuff2side

To the lower left of the above photo you can see some more brass. This is where the non-spiral portion of the track is finally anchored. This is also where minor insanity set in. I’m guessing there are about ten inches or so of free movement before the track reaches that anchor point. This is necessary for the agove-mentioned wiggling and clanking and whatnot. It just HAD to be done that way, or it would have really taken the fizz out of the punch, so to speak.

Getting that brass cut properly and soldered on there was a PAIN! That was an entire day of my life, and after that entire day, I failed quite spectacularly at the soldering. I had to leave it sitting there all blackened and lumpy, go to bed, and come back to it the next morning. The following day I realized that, if I were to have any hope in completing it as I had envisioned, what was going to be required was that I clamp the entire assembly onto a 2×4 board *vertically* so that the solder would flow onto the joints properly. Note: This is the part of the sculpture where things went from simple to “Hey, wait a minute! How did I end up doing all this work!” ‘Twas totally worth it though, kids, as it turned out freakin’ sweet!

makestuff2rtqtr

Here’s the final photo showing some more detail on the curved supports for the spiral. Those turned out kind of nice, though I was torn about them for a while. I made them all and then wanted to scrap them and do something else, but instead I made a few cuts and bends and figured they looked pretty decent anyway. Here you can also get a better look at the upswing on the end of the whole affair. It does a nice job of slowing the marble down and bring it to a more gentle stop where it just kind of settles into the curve and waits to be picked up again.

By the way, didn’t my dad do another killer job on the base? He’s pretty awesome. I should probably get hold of him and ask for more for future projects. I have three left, but by the time I’m done he’ll probably just be finishing up another order for me.

So, fun, right? I thought so, anyway. I’ve never done anything previously with an active element like that wiggling ramp. I think I dig it. I’m going to try something like that with the others, some different kind of element for each one, maybe throw in a little more brass while I’m at it. It’s a bit of a pain to solder, but it looks nice when it’s done.

So that’s it! Pretty cool, eh? I’m jazzed. I hope the next one is as fun as this one. Completing this was rewarding, as it negated all those feelings of frustration that I had while I built it. When those brass pieces refused to solder properly I really did want to scrap that whole part of the plan, but I took a deep breath, called on some patience, and it came through just fine. We all have these moments in our creative endeavors. Remember to “Never judge a fledgling piece of work too soon.” That’s Artist’s Way stuff, kids. Learn it, know it, live it! It’s better than a pile of bent copper wire!